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Other entries in Phnom Penh

Pol Pot

With only 8 weeks left travelling till im back in old Blighty for good, well, until the next time, it was time to leave Siam Reap. Another day at the temples would be great, but, maybe in a few years.
 
It was an early start the next morning, heading for Phnom Penh, the capital. I had decided to take the boat, along with David, across Tonle Sap Lake, as the road that was supposed to have been tarmacked in 2002, still hasn't been. The bus ride would have been 9hrs, and the boat 5. It was a very long and narrow speed boat, but was a lot faster, and smoother than the bus would have been. The jetty was surrounded by a floating and stilt village, full of fishermen and people trying to help tourists. It was a struggle to get my bag out of the back of the mini bus, forcing my way between the two people that were fighting over my bag, to get it out.  I managed to get it off both of them, but was followed with some very dirty looks.
 
The boat made its way out through the swamps into open water. There was a strong wind across the lake that was whiping up big waves, coming parrallel to the boat, making it pitch wildly to the side. Most of us sat on the roof were exchanging nervous glances with each other as we came closer to capsizing with ever in creasing waves.  The spray from the waves hitting the side of the boat soaked every body on top. We at last made it to the river at the end of the lake where it was sheltered and a lot smoother ride. The banks were full of stilt houses with waving kids running to the shore, and parents stopping their boats getting washed up the shore by the bow wave from our boat.
 
We got to Phnom Penh and found the usual tuk tuks and touts awaiting our arrival. We grabbed the first tuk tuk driver we saw and headed to lake side where its a bit cheaper. I found some where to stay and headed over to the Laos Embassy to get my visa for next week. I spent the rest of the day walking back through the city.
 
Its the same as most asian cities, developing, un-developed and developed. Hummers, Mercs and Lexuses, with scooters and tuk tuks every where. There are some very modern expensive buildings and hotels scattered about the place, as well as the delapedated ones. The parks surronding the river side and the independence monument were well kept with colouful flowers and hedges. Some governements find intresting things to spend their money on. I sat on the wall by the river and watched the world go by. It was full of young families and groups of youths and tourists walking down the promanade, with the usual people selling everything from ballons to fried squid.
 
The next day I left at a reasnobale hour of the day (?) and headed to the killing fields. The execution area of the Pol Pot era. 18,000 bodies were discovered when the grave sites were excavated. Almost 20,000 of these sites have been found in Cambodia, and the number is rising. The centre of the killing fields has a stupa in it, filled with the skulls of 8,000 victims. Some still showing the evidence of there misreable end. Bullets were to expensive for the Pol Pot army, so other methods had to be used. There are lots of open holes where the graves used to stand, either with water in the bottom or grown over with grass. Its quite a chilling expereince being there with all the pain and misery, but with the sound of childern playing in the school opposite, it almost like the sounds of ghosts of the victims, had things turned out differently.....

The Pol Pot era happended after the civil war here around the 1970s. He learnt about communists and agragarian civilisations, every body being a farmer and working for the good of the land, all except himself I would guess. I through out of office the old government, teachers, doctors, engineers, people with glasses, and their famillies were all rounded up and never seen again.
 
After that I headed to the shooting range. I wasn't going to go, but the tuk tuk driver wanted to go, so I followed, no choice really. Here you can shoot things from hand guns to shot guns and machine guns to RPGs, Rocket launchers, O, and throw hand grenades. For some people in that frame of mind, a cow can be placed infront of the rocket launcher.
 
The only cow I harmed to day was the one in the Beef Burger I had at night!
 
As I was there I decided I may as well have ago.  I went for the AK47. A use less piece of metal. The kic back is so powerful that the gun shakes all over the place when you fire. Im amazed any poor army in the world that uses it has any success. Any way, there was a target 30m away in a warehouse, I sat down and took aim. There were 25bullets in the magazine. Some how, I don't know how, I hit the taget 17 times. The first  5 shots were single shots and the rest was on automatic. May be thats how I got most of the shots on target? 
 
After that I headed for the Genocide Museum in the city, called S-21 (S for Security.) It was called Toul Sleng, an old High School before the Pol Pot regime took it over as a prison and torcher centre. Out of the 20,000 detainees only 7 survived. Any body was likely to get sent there, men, woman, children, doctors, teachers and governement officials, if you got sent there, you were never seen again. The class rooms had been turned into cells and interragation chambers. Pictures have been put up of the victims, life at the prison and the forced labour that the rural people were put to, building dykes and roads and farming the land. Pictures of the torcher methods were on some of the other walls.
 
Its been a very depressing day to day. Im going to find a resturant playing a comedy!

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